Yes At Last, Shazza Is Back !!

It was the 24th January, brilliant sunshine, clear blue sky and just a little over 20 degrees(c) with only the slightest hint of a breeze, so there we were, sat on a sun-drenched balcony, overlooking the pool with its vast array of brown canvas covered sun beds, the sound of the gentle waves of the sparkling blue Mediterranean Sea gently lapping up onto the shoreline, which was no more than fifty metres away from where we were sat. However, just being sat there, soaking up the sunshine and the ambience, we were immediately transported back to another time, well over 11 years ago now, which was the very last time that we had taken our last proper fourteen night luxury holiday, in a five star seafront RIU Hotel in Mexico. Now, whilst we may be in yet another RIU hotel, which for those that do not know, is actually a Spanish owned Hotel Chain Group, who have luxury accommodations all over the world, but we were certainly not in Mexico, we were not on a fourteen night holiday and neither had we travelled on a long haul flight to enjoy these luxurious accommodations. We were in fact still in Spain and just a two hour leisurely drive North from our own sun drenched balcony. Shazza had decided that ‘we’ should take a short four day break, which I guess you may say, coming from what is our own normal everyday seaside location home, to another seaside location just up the coastline, is probably a little like taking ‘A Busman’s Holiday’ just to exchange one sea view balcony for another.

So, you may be wondering, what were we doing here, and more importantly, why would a tight Yorkshireman even contemplate actually paying for the privilege of enjoying a hotel balcony with a sea view when we already owned our own ? To answer that I guess that I need to rewind a little first, for this had been one of those ‘Shazza’s Adventures’, totally unplanned and unscheduled and sprung upon me with no prior warning, “Yes At Last, Shazza Is Back” I thought to myself, which I guess, after having seemingly lost her ‘MoJo’ recently, is a good thing, isn’t it …………🤔

Some three weeks earlier………………..

For the both of us, there is actually a massive difference between actually being ill, as opposed to just not feeling quite right. If we were really ill and if, after perhaps suffering for a week, the symptoms did not decline, or perhaps even tended to worsen, then quite possibly we may have considered making an appointment to see a doctor, but, if we are just ‘not feeling quite right’, that would basically just entail us waiting, and continuing to suffer, until whatever it was that was making us feel ‘not quite right’, just disappeared again of it’s own accord. However, I do have to say that it is very unusual for both Shazza and I to suffer with ‘something’ at the same time and, that ‘something’ having identical symptoms, but that is exactly what had happened to us right at the start of the New Year, although nothing to do with our New Year’s Eve festivities I hasten to add, but this ‘not feeling quite right’ had started within a day or so after New Year’s Day. We had actually both been sleeping relatively well at night, getting a good 6-8 hours (Shazza probably nearer 10 🤭) yet, not long after we had woken up and started moving about, just doing normal routine sort of stuff, nothing too strenuous, we both felt extremely fatigued and just wanting to go back to sleep, with that fatigue came a constant nausea and we both had a strange discomfort in our stomachs, although that discomfort is hard to actually describe as it was not a pain, or even an ache, no ‘delly belly’ symptoms or anything like that, just an indescribable sort of discomfort in the pit of our stomachs, although, I have to say that it didn’t stop us eating normally, so we cannot have been that bad 🙄 Neither of us were suffering with any Cold or Flu like symptoms, no coughs and sneezes, watery eyes, sore throats, fever or headaches, we both just did not feel ‘quite right’ and that feeling lasted every single day, morning through night, for a little over two weeks. Of course we considered whether we had perhaps contracted this new strain of ‘Covid’ that is currently circulating, especially with the knowledge that, over the last couple of months, the infection rates for both Influenza and Covid, here in Andalusia, have gone up by 37%. We had also only recently returned from our Christmas trip to Munich, having been confined in a very small, re-circulated air, metal tube, on both the outward and return flights for a period of three hours on each journey, necessitating mixing, at very close quarters, amongst hoards of total strangers on the aircraft and in the Airports, those strangers having themselves travelled from god knows where in the wider world. Then, whilst in Munich we had travelled on numerous busy trains, and of course visited busy city centre venues and hostelries. So, we asked ourselves, could it be possible that we had both contracted this latest new strain of ‘Covid’ as we had got out of the habit of wearing face masks ? It was certainly one possible explanation that we could not confidently rule out, although we were not suffering with shortness of breath or other associated bronchial symptoms 🤷‍♂️

So of course, we did what everybody else probably does, knowing full well of course that we shouldn’t, but you do it anyway don’t you ? Yes we foolishly went on-line and checked out what ‘Dr Google’ had to say about our symptoms and, having done so, of course, and as already anticipated, we were bombarded with a vast number of potentially very serious medical conditions that we could be suffering from, each of them varying in their degree of seriousness, from potentially fatal diseases, requiring us to seek immediate urgent hospital admission, to those just necessitating us having to go to see a doctor, albeit as a matter of some urgency and, of course, each diagnosis we checked on the long list of medical contenders included ‘Covid’, just by way of ensuring that they covered all eventualities and possibilities 🙄 Now although neither of us are medically qualified, we discounted ‘all’ of their diagnosis with deep disdain, although I have to say that secretly, at some point after our on-line consultations, when we each found ourselves alone, we surreptitiously checked that the other’s life insurance policy premiums were duly paid and up to date 😂

We did however still try to continue to take our walks, although not daily, whilst ensuring we kept our distance from other’s just to be on the safe side in case we did have Covid, so not wishing to transmit it to other’s, we had also unearthed our supply of face masks again, for when close proximity with other’s could not be avoided, like when we went to do the weekly shopping. However, and very fortunately, the weather did come to our assistance with needing to restrict and restrain our normal daily outdoor movements. Between ourselves we check four different ‘Works of Fiction’ forecasts, on a daily basis, and on the extremely rare occasions when all four actually reflect the same daily forecast then, generally speaking, those predicted forecasts do tend to be somewhere near accurate. Although their was one rebellious ‘Works of Fiction’ forecaster who, whilst generally agreeing with the other’s, in that we were in for a full weeks worth of rain, which was to vary from the lighter more drizzly stuffy, to the much heavier and prolonged downpours with periods of thunder and lightening, which happened to give us something different to entertain us whilst we were confined. However, this particular rebel, being a lot like myself, more of an eternal optimist, actually showed some periods within that otherwise dismal weeks forecast, of there being some brighter and drier periods and, as it turned out, the rebellious one was, on this occasion, proven to be right 👍 But overall we were generally confined to barracks for the majority of that week and so didn’t need to beat ourselves up too much about being extremely lethargic and not taking our more usual daily exercise. We consoled ourselves with the fact that they were having far worse weather conditions in the Northern parts of Spain, with heavy snow, and not just in the higher mountainous areas where it was normal at this time of year, whereas we on the other hand, although experiencing some rain, the temperatures remained between 15-18 degree(c) whilst up North, in the snow, it had fallen as low as -13 degrees(c) 🥶

Eventually, after what seemed an eternity, we awoke one morning to happily discover that we actually felt ‘normal’ again, although actually defining what is ‘normal’ about us can sometimes be a little difficult to articulate, but suffice to say that we were no longer suffering from fatigue, there was no nausea and no stomach discomfort, so whatever ‘bug’ we had contracted had finally outlived its incubation period, and without the need for any medical intervention, so we finally both felt healthy again, to be perfectly honest, I have always trusted that, if left to its own devices, the bodies immune system will, generally speaking, deal with any routine bugs and infections and introducing over the counter medications to relieve symptoms can often interfere with the bodies natural immune system defences.

Now, this couple of weeks of ‘not feeling quite right’ and the subsequent confinement, was not actually the catalyst for Shazza’s sudden mini-adventure, however, as a consequence of it, and in combination with virtually a week’s poor weather conditions, we tended to watch a lot more afternoon TV, in particular a programme called ‘A Place In The Sun, What Happened Next ?’, which entailed the original presenter revisiting the people who had purchased properties in Spain, and elsewhere in Europe, to see basically how they had settled in several years later, to their new lifestyles. Many of them had done some improvements to their new homes, ranging from extensive renovations, or basic internal improvements or perhaps even just a spot of re-decorating but, they had all settled in to their new communities and had started to explore their new environments and venturing a little further afield from their immediate communities.

When we initially purchased, what had been intended as just a temporary sort of ‘Bolt Hole’, some nine year’s previously, we of course re-decorated, and purchased a few new furnishings and then, on each short ninety-day return visit we also spent some of our time exploring our local area, that had been fun and also very interesting. However, since making this our permanent home, over the last seven months, we both feel that we have begun to just slip back into a more ‘conventional’ style of living, enjoying our immediate local area but not really venturing anywhere too far from our immediate home base anymore. Now yes, we do have our ‘Bucket List’ of trips, and we do still have every good intention of doing some of them over the next few year’s, but we both agreed that recently we were beginning to allow ourselves to just get a little too comfortable in our routines and daily lives. Now perhaps we can be forgiven, for that is the ‘problem’ we have, with having everything that we need literally already on our doorstep, a nice comfortable home with nice sea and Mountain View’s, a swimming pool just a two-minute walk from our front door, the sea, several beaches, the marina, the town, beach bars, cafe’s, restaurants, shops, walks etc. etc. etc. although, I do have to just say that describing those things in our lives as a ‘problem’ has brought a rather wry smile to my face 😁 But in truth, we are in danger of losing our appetite for adventure, of not taking opportunities to see new places, many of which are also pretty much right on our doorstep. Yes we have visited quite a few places over the last few years, both along the coastline and inland, but there are still lots of places, relatively local and within only a couple of hours drive, places that we have both said we would like to visit, but it seems that recently our ‘get up and go’ had got up and gone, without us 😲 So watching these ‘Relocation’ programmes on the TV served to give us a gentle kick up the backside and so we both agreed, in principle at least, that we need to re-ignite our wanderlust and sense of adventure.

I had actually mentioned to Shazza, just prior to us not feeling quite right, about going on a ‘day trip’ to ‘Nerja’, which is a pretty tourist town just around the bay from Malaga and only around a two hour drive away, it was one of those places that we had both previously said that we would like to visit, however, on that occasion she had just screwed her nose up in a disinterested sort of way.

So you can probably imagine my surprise when suddenly, the morning after getting over our unknown illness, she announces “Should we go away for a few days ?”, I picked up first on the ‘few days’ part of her sentence and immediately thought she was going to suggest going to ‘Granada’, which to be honest, for me, at this time of year, with temperatures still on the cool side in the Sierra Nevada mountains, it wasn’t a prospect that I would cherish. I gave her one of my non-committal sort of looks, “So where do you fancy going for these few days ?” I asked, whilst at the same time subconsciously starting to think about where I had stored my thermals, but I was pleasantly surprised when she suggested going to ‘Nerja’. Of course, Shazza being Shazza, this had not really been a spur of the moment decision, as when I said that it sounded like a good idea, she instantaneously reeled off the particular Hotel that she wanted to stay at, and a list of places that we would could visit whilst we were there. “When do you want to go ?” I enquired, but then nearly choked on my coffee when she came back instantaneously with “Tommorrow” 😲 There was certainly nothing actually stopping us from going, so as soon as I had said ‘Okay, why not” that was it, she immediately went on-line and booked us in for three nights at the RIU Monica seafront hotel in ‘Nerja’.

We packed our suitcases that evening, it was the first time that we would get to use our individual and recently acquired new ‘Cabin Baggage’ sized cases and, although we had agreed that we were in no real rush to depart the following morning, as we could not Check-in to our hotel room until 3pm, that morning, as soon as we had drunk our morning coffee’s, Shazza seemed to me to be a little too eager to get on the road, but leave we did, a little after 10:00am, when we didn’t actually need to depart until nearer 1pm 🤷‍♂️ However, the reason for such a prompt departure was soon to become abundantly clear.

It has been quite some time since I have experienced the ‘Shazza Adventures’ syndrome, so I had forgotten that she would already have had some sort of hidden itinerary already organised and planned in her mind, one that she would not share with me beforehand and would only divulge when it was too late for me to protest, or to actually have an opinion about 🙄 Part of her itinerary was to visit the ‘Cueva Nerja’ which are a series of caverns stretching for almost 5 kilometres (or 3.1 miles in our previous UK distance measurements), these caverns being one of Spain’s major tourist attractions. The caves have actually existed for centuries, even used as dwellings in Prehistoric times, but they were only rediscovered in more recent times. On the 12th January 1959, five friends followed a flock of bats that had entered through a narrow sinkhole, now known as “La Mina“, which formed one of only two natural entrances to the cave system. The caverns contain the world’s largest ‘stalactite’, measuring a height of 33 metres (a little over 108 feet). However, a third entrance was created in 1960, to allow easy access for tourists. The cave is divided into two main parts, known as Nerja I and Nerja II. Nerja I includes the Show Galleries which are open to the public, Nerja II is only accessible to those doing research projects. So, Shazza’s plan was to go and visit the caves first, prior to checking-in at the hotel, it seemed to be a good plan to me and a good use of our day, with the added bonus that I like exploring caves, which she knows. So, with Shazza (Luis Hamilton) ‘electing’ to do the driving, I was more than happy to settle back and just enjoy the morning sunshine and the stunning scenery, on one side the glittering blue sea and on the other, the mountains. I of course made sure to point out to Shazza, the snow capped ‘Sierra Nevada’ mountains in the distance, just in case she had already started to formulate any other secret ‘Shazza Adventures’ in her mind 🤭

We could have parked in a large car park at the caves for just €2, however, literally outside the entrance there was an area of rough ground that was also being utilised for car parking, for a fee of only €1, well who can turn down a saving of 50% 😂 The actual cost to go into the cave was €33 (€17.50 for Shazza and for geriatrics over 65 years, like myself, €15.50) but believe me, it was well worth the cost. Now just for anyone reading this who has already visited ‘St Michael’s Cave’ on Gibraltar, then imagine that, but on a very much larger scale !! You can also download an App, completely free, onto your phone (Translations in different languages, Top Tip: select the children’s version which provides a much more interesting narrative 👍). There is no restricted headroom inside the cave, so no need to worry about claustrophobia, or having to wear a hard hat and ruining your hairstyle 🤭, the walkways are wide and well illuminated and you are permitted to take photographs, but you cannot use a ‘flash’. Once you have completed the cave tour, which took us between 45-60 minutes, but there is no time restriction and will depend of course on how fast you walk, there is also the usual ‘Tourist Tat’ shop as you exit, and an on-site cafeteria and then a nice garden area to walk around, with shaded picnic tables if you elect to bring your own food. There is also a footbridge, which will take you across to the small coastal town of ‘Maro’, so you could make a full day of it, if you so wished.

Shazza had done her ‘due diligence’ research on the on-site Cafeteria and said that the reviews were not very good in respect of the quality and price of the food or the service from the staff, however, just outside the entrance, right across from where we had parked our car, there was a ‘Taberna’ with a nice inner courtyard, now that had received a lot of very good reviews, so that is where we chose to have our lunch. There were lots of menu choices but we selected to share a plate of ‘Mixta Tapas’, and we ordered two small cold beers, it would have been rude not to 😁 We didn’t expect there to be too much, portion wise, as far as quantity of Tapas, but boy were we surprised when it was delivered to the table, there was a selection of 7 different choice Tapas and we were glad that we had not ordered one each, as there was more than enough for the both of us, the total bill was also very nice at only €15 😁

We had an enjoyable time at the caves and then, after our lunch stop, we made our way into Nerja and found our hotel, just a short 15 minute drive away from the Caves. There was car parking available at the hotel, which we could have pre-booked at €23 per day 😲 However, once again, as part of Shazza’s due diligence research, she had located a public car park just a couple of minutes walk from the hotel on the opposite side of the road, for just €1 per day, it was a no brainer.

We would not be having a big layout on food costs over the next 3-4 days either, as our hotel booking came with ‘Half Board’ included in the price, Desayuno y Cena (Breakfast and Dinner). Having stayed in numerous RIU hotels around the world over the years, we knew that we would be spoilt for choice in the Buffet Style restaurant and that the quality would be top notch, we were not to be disappointed. When we checked-in, the very friendly receptionist informed us that the hotel was fully booked and therefore the ‘Standard Double Room’ with a balcony and sea view, that we had pre-booked twenty-four hours earlier, was not available, so we had been upgraded to a ‘Double De-Luxe’, at no additional cost. As we were doing the check-in procedure another member of staff came over and presented us each with a glass of Champagne, a welcome drink, although I suspect that it was probably ‘Cava’, but it was a very appreciative welcoming touch and so we both enjoyed our additional unexpected Anti-Covid Medications 👍

When we entered our ‘upgraded’ room all the curtains were closed and so we set about opening them to let the beautiful sunshine in, but my heart sunk, for whilst the room was very large with two massive beds and a separate side table and chairs, with the usual large screen TV, mini bar, tea and coffee making facilities etc, but when I pulled back the curtains, although there was a large and wide floor to ceiling window, it only had a side view of the swimming pool and the sea, and no balcony, to say that I was disappointed would be a massive understatement 😔

Shazza went down a hallway in our room to where the large bathroom facilities were located, shortly afterwards she called for me to go and have a look. To be honest, a bathroom is a bathroom, as far as I was concerned 🤷‍♂️ so as long as it had the usual facilities I didn’t really care that much. However as I walked down the hallway towards her, she opened up another set of curtains to reveal a double patio door leading on to a very generous balcony, with a table and two chairs and …… a front facing pool and sea view !! (See Photo at top of blog page) my face was almost not wide enough to fit the smile that now appeared right across it 🤗

We spent the rest of the afternoon ‘at leisure’, which as you may imagine, entailed a great deal of time sat on the sun soaked balcony 😎 and perhaps a little bit of time in ‘Personal Contemplation’, which as you know, is always best done with one’s eyes closed 😉 Later we had a bit of an exploration outside our room to find out where the other facilities were located, which included a small, but adequate, indoor heated pool, a small but well equipped gymnasium (but do not expect a practical review of any of the equipment 😂), Buffet Restaurant with a large outside terrace, separate internal Bar area, lots of internal seating areas, an outside snack bar and seating area, and of course the outside pool and sun lounging area, with an external security gate that gave entry directly onto the seafront promenade. This particular RIU hotel had only been graded as a Four Star, probably because it did not have individual cooking stations in the buffet restaurant or a separate ‘A La Carte’ restaurant as its sister hotels have in some of the long haul destinations, but even so, in my book at least, it would have been well worth the full Five Stars as it was immaculately clean, all over the hotel and not just our room, without exception all of the staff were so very friendly, the food was absolutely superb and the multitude of culinary choices enabled everyone, irrespective of their dietary needs, to find something to suit their palate, and it was plentiful 👍

We both enjoyed a wonderful night’s sleep, each having the equivalent of a double bed to ourselves, so there was no need for me to have to pinch back any covers from you know who 😉 As is usual these days, I awoke quite early, Shazza was still in dreamland, so I made myself a mug of hot coffee and sat on the balcony watching the sun rise, whilst listening to the gentle waves lapping up on to the shoreline. There were several joggers and walkers out and about on the promenade, of course I would have joined them, but I had only just made a nice hot cuppa and I had also left my tight fitting, almost obscene, Lycra at home (Not a thought to ponder on !!), I suppose I could have always just worn my ‘budgie smugglers’, perhaps tomorrow morning eh !! Once Shazza had awoken I made her a cuppa, some morning routines never change even on a mini-break holiday 😁 We showered and then enjoyed a hearty breakfast, I succumbed and had two bacon sandwiches, well it would have been rude not to seeing as they had gone to the trouble of cooking it just as I like it 😉 Full Continental style and full English breakfasts were also available, Shazza stuck to her healthy cereal and fruit. Today was going to be spent exploring Nerja itself, which was only a short distance walk away.

We knew that Nerja was a very popular ‘All Year Round’ Tourist destination, this was confirmed by the vast amount of ‘Tourist Tat’ shops we passed in almost every alleyway that we wandered along, with of course numerous Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, and lots of Hotels and Holiday Rental properties, but it was pleasant enough and their were plenty of people out and about, which added to the holiday ambience.

After a lot of wearing out more of the rubber soles on our flip-flops we found a quiet plaza with a nice Cafe, so of course it would have been rude of us not to. Once suitably refreshed the next port of call, conveniently only a couple of minutes walk away, was the museum that showed how the Region and the town had evolved since prehistoric times. We always like to go and take a look at such places, although we never spend too much time in them, something to do with us both being ‘History Heathens’, although sometimes we do learn some little snippets of information that, at the time is quite interesting to read, or see, but we generally quite conveniently tend to forget it again very shortly afterwards 🤷‍♂️ To be absolutely truthful, the best Museum we have ever visited was the ‘Museum of Liverpool’, in the UK, an account of which appeared in one of my previous rambles, when we were staying at Southport in the van and went to the City on the train for a day trip, unlike this one which cost us €3 each entrance fee, which was in itself extremely reasonable, but in comparison, the entrance fee to the one in Liverpool was, quite remarkably, ‘Free’. The Nerja museum looked pretty new, so perhaps they are still gathering exhibition pieces and information to put on display, but it passed around thirty minutes and at least it was much cooler inside 🥵

Sightseeing completed we decided to try and find somewhere to eat lunch, I wouldn’t normally have eaten breakfast and then had a lunch, but all this walking had given me an appetite, but we were not going to be mugged in broad daylight at the ‘Tourist’ eateries, so we spent some time wandering in and out of alleyways looking for a more suitable venue. As it happened we found ourselves about half way back to the hotel at a nice pavement side Cafe/Restaurant just off the promenade, and after perusing the menu we took a seat, ordered a couple of Anti-Covid Vaccines and awaited the delivery of our healthy lunch.

That was it for our second day’s activities, we spent the remainder of the afternoon and evening ‘At Leisure’ as they say, a spot of more people watching but this time from our room balcony, which can often provide some amusement in itself, especially when looking at the swimwear styles of some folk, or should I say, the lack of it 😲 We agreed that whilst some may wish not to return home with any ‘White Bits’, us ‘prudes’ agreed that, perhaps ‘G-Strings’ should probably be adorned by the much more youthful and appropriately sized individuals, although I guess I should really take my hat off to them, if only for the purpose of providing them with something to assist in covering certain ‘full figured’ individuals body parts 🤭

Our final full day was to involve another short fifteen minute drive in the car, to the inland and slightly more elevated hillside town of ‘Frigiliana’. Now this was another one of those places that we had often seen on that programme that I have mentioned earlier in this ramble, ‘A Place In The Sun’. On the programme it had looked very pretty, as a lot of Spanish whitewashed Towns and Villages of course do, and, as it was on the doorstep so to speak, it would be an opportunity to see what it actually looked like ‘In the flesh’. The Town (or Village 🤷‍♂️) is divided into two parts, each having a selection of retail establishments to service the local community, however, the main part was the more ‘Touristy’ bit, you know, with all the usual ‘Tourist Tat’ shops, as well as the vast array of Cafe/Bars and Restaurants. Shazza had of course done her due diligence and had identified the location of the main car park, which was quite a modern looking underground multi-storey car park, at extremely economical hourly rates, we were the only vehicle in it when we arrived at 10:00am 🤔 We had not thought this trip out too well, it was a hillside Town (or Village) with very ‘narrow’ cobbled and winding streets on varying levels, perhaps flip-flops were not the best choice of footwear on this occasion, and of course, being surrounded by varying height mountainous terrains, the streets that had not yet been touched by the warming sunshine made it a little chilly, if only we had brought our warmer fleeces, this is what happens when you become accustomed to the much warmer living down at sea-level 🙄

We decided to just wander, up and down the various narrow streets, looking for somewhere to grab a warming coffee, but everywhere was shut, apart from a couple of ‘Panaderias’ (Bakery), a small mini-market and a small car garage, even the ‘Tourist Tat’ establishments were closed along with the all the Cafe/Bars and Restaurants, surely some of the locals must have occasionally gone out for a morning coffee, that’s where they usually meet with other locals to catch up with all the local gossip. We knew that some retail businesses, and hostelries, would close down at this time of year to have their vacations, and some notices on locked entrance doors indicated that this was the case, but surely not all of them at the same time. We continued to just wander, the streets were nicely decorated with colourful plants in brightly painted plant pots, their were small inner courtyards with half a dozen small houses packed in like sardines around them, it was a pretty place, just totally devoid of almost any other human presence 😲 We were glad that when we were property hunting that we had not come here in the height of Summer, when it would have been fully open for business and had that charm feeling, to then discover that for the rest of the year we would have little to do, unless we drove down to the sea, even the main facilities like Supermarkets, Banks, Post Office etc. were located down in Nerja.

Our calf muscles had had enough, as had we, mainly because we were constantly trying to stop our flip-flops from rolling away down the street without us, so we decided that whilst this charming hillside Town (or Village) would probably have been much nicer had we have chosen to visit in the Summer ‘Tourist Season’, for us, well at least when we next see it featured on ‘A Place In The Sun’ we will know the reality of living all year round here. We made our way back to the car park where we did finally discover a Cafe that was open, with chairs and tables in the sunshine, so as we had not eaten breakfast in the hotel that morning, as we had decided that we would get here first and then enjoy ‘A Brunch In The Sun’, we settled for a ‘Cafe con Leche Y Tostado’, which I have to say was very nice.

It was a little after midday by the time we returned to the hotel and, after a short coffee break on our balcony, we decided to take a final walk along the seafront promenade, but this time in the opposite direction to the Town, when we returned we stopped at the Hotel poolside snack bar, ordered a couple of small cold beers, Shazza had a bowl of ‘Parmesan’ coated ‘Patata Fritas’ (Chips) and I settled for a slice of ‘Tortilla’ (Spanish Omelette), we sat in the sunshine and both agreed that it had been a very nice few days break and that we should do this a lot more often, even taking much longer breaks and travelling much further afield, there are still a lot of wonderful places to see throughout Spain. However, in the next few weeks we had other commitments, Shazza’s Aunt and Uncle, who have made a point of regularly visiting us here in Spain over the last 9 years, albeit often at short notice, were arriving on 15th February and then two weeks after they leave, we would be having our much awaited new kitchen installed. My daughter and Son-in-Law have now booked their visit to us in July, arriving the day after her Birthday, our Son, Daughter-in-Law and three Grandchildren have asked if they can come out again this Summer, although no dates have yet been confirmed, and of course we have our trip to Austria at the beginning of August. So with our first Annual Spanish Tax Returns to be submitted in April, our first car service to be done here in Spain in May (already pre-booked) and, the commencement of our Residency renewals to start sorting out, at the beginning of April, so we have another busy start to the first half of this year. We, or should I say, Shazza, will have to pick any future ‘Adventures’ in between those known commitments, as for me, well I have the very important task of ensuring that the money is in the bank and readily available, for I may well get very little advance notice of such adventures beforehand 😂

until my next ramble………….

Hasta Luego mi Amigo’s, La Vida Es Buena 👍